BUFFALO, N.Y. — Back in November Catholic Health postponed inpatient elective procedures at all of its WNY hospitals because of the COVID-19 surge.
The health system now says that they'll be notified on Monday, December 6 as to which of its hospitals fall under the new capacity executive order that Governor Hochul signed last week.
Kaleida Health says they have cancelled or postponed elective surgeries over the past 90 days due to the increase of COVID-19. They too will be waiting for the state's announcement on Monday.
Kaledia Health Senior Vice President Michael P. Hughes issued this statement Friday evening.
“Throughout the past 90 days or so, where and when possible, we have cancelled or postponed non-essential surgeries. And as we have done since March of 2020, we continue to work very closely with our physician leaders across the health system to ensure that we are managing patient care and community need. The New York State Department of Health today issued guidelines related to limiting ‘non-essential elective procedures’, which they will review and according to their guidance, ‘Determinations will be issued to facilities by [Monday] December 6th, to apply to procedures scheduled to occur on or after [Thursday] December 9th. That said, we will continue to monitor the capacity situation on an hour by hour, day by day basis.”
Governor Hochul's executive order went into effect on December 3.
The executive order is aimed to ease the burden of hospitals and make space for new COVID patients. The order limits non-essential, non-urgent procedures for hospital systems with "limited capacity." That capacity is defined as below 10 percent staffed bed capacity or other utilization factors.
"I am announcing urgent steps today to expand hospital capacity and help ensure our hospital systems can tackle any challenges posed by the pandemic," said Governor Hochul at the time she signed the executive order.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said that as of December 1, there were 352 COVID-19 patients in an Erie County hospital. 2 On Your Side reported several days ago that all of the area hospitals were feeling a capacity crunch.
